Hi. Why can we argue foie gras? Great thing they're doing, I can only imagine how tough his crowd is to please...

You know about foie gras, right? It's disgusting.

Good for him!

i wish i didn't like foie gras so much. with a Sauternes. mmmm.

@Janners: Yes, I'm sure YumSugar knows about foie gras, but some would argue in favor of it.

I think Wolfgang is doing a brilliant step in the right direction, and I hope others take a look at what he's doing.

We can argue because I heart it and I don't feel too guilty about it. I love animals, donate to the SPCA, and try to eat local and sustainable when I can. However I'm known to eat eggs and meat at places that don't use cage-free, range-free, etc and not feel too guilty about it. I know the conditions that those animals are put in for our food and don't think they're treated much better than the animals used for foie gras. In the end it's a food chain. It would be nice if our food industry changed so that the animals didn't suffer first - and I really wish I could get behind it 100% - but I do love me some foie gras.

Haha, YumSugar, well done! I brought my dad a tin of fois gras back from Paris' Le Bon Marche for Christmas last year because he had been raving about it for ages and I saw that they also had tins of fois gras with TRUFFLES. Over the top, much? I'm not a huge fan of fois gras myself, but I can see why one would appreciate it. Of course, I also saw a PETA film about how fois gras is produced a while ago and was horrified ... so I agree with you, YumSugar, about wanting to see a change in the food industry as well.

lol did you ever watch the old Iron Chef Japanese, every battle they would whip out fois gras and truffles like it was nothing...

Not trying to start something I just suppose I'm more offended by that process than others... I certainly enjoy my chicken knowing that the conditions they're raised in are quite horrendous, although I admit I do feel a tad guilty about it sometimes. One of those people who get the vegetarian urge only to be confronted with stuffed chicken breast -____-

I guess I just feel the way I do because foie gras is an absolute delicacy... chicken, eggs, meat, with the huge demand for those it'd be incredibly difficult to monitor the conditions the animals are raised. But foie gras, that's served at high end restaurants for the most part, it wouldn't be hugely missed.

All personal opinion I suppose Just curious as to your take on the matter!

it's worse than that Janners, i'm no expert (to put it mildly), but my understanding, the maltreatment of chickens, cows, etc. are to seek maximum efficiency in production, which, while it may be bad for the chickens and cows, does make those products more affordable, which can arguably be seen as an overall good.

With foie gras, the maltreatment is simply to make the end product fatter and at least to me, more yummy.

I'm with ya YumSugar. Foie gras rocks. I wish the industry would change. But I'm still proud of WP for taking a stand. Maybe other's will follow and over time the standards will change.

Foie gras and veal are disgusting. You know what they do to those poor animals, don't you. Y U C K!!!! I refuse to eat innards anyways.

************************************************
"I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful." Marilyn Monroe

See, this is where I get all torn up, because I know what they do to the chickens I get eggs from (even if it says range-free, it doesn't mean their beaks - which have many nerve endings in them - haven't been sliced off anyway) and yet I can eat eggs and not feel bad. Their living conditions are probably about the same. Maybe I've just become too desensitized... I suppose if I felt really bad I'd have become vegan by now.

i like foie gras a lot but i can do without it. The last time i had it was a year ago. I like it warm rather in terrine though.

one day i will become a vegetarian.. one day

As crappie as it sounds Im more of a "Out of Sight, out of Mind" person when it comes to meat and eggs. If Im in a situation with a choice of free range or not, I of course take the free range. Too bad everything just doesnt grow already packaged.

~Erin~

that's funny Budderflie. I'm a city boy, so I've never been hunting, but I've always wanted to go, so I can at least know how that steak makes it into the little styrofoam thingy with the plastic wrap on it.

I have caught a fish though. I like me some fresh trout!!

i bet if people had to do their own huntin .. there would be alot more vegetarians out there

In that case I'm huntin' fat geese!

yeah a geek, that may be what we're hunting, but we'd likely just go hungry. The geese would be very safe.

Foie gras production is a tradition in southern France, and the ducks are not treated as inhumanely as some animal rights groups would have you believe. I've read reports that the ducks actually run to the farmers during feeding time. Yes, they are over-fed. But being over-fed is far more glorious a life than most factory-farmed chickens, yet most Americans consume them and have no problem with it. I think the foie gras ban is ridiculous. Some politicians went after a food product that only a small portion of the American population consume. Imagine the uproar if someone decided to ban factory-farmed chickens and eggs!

i may go back to vegetarianism again after reading this thread.

Good idea audreystar.

i dont eat foie gras cos i dont eat innards, so i wont be missing out much!

i DO like that he's, at the very least, trying to make a stand, which is a step towards a good direction i think!

i HAVE contemplated turning vegetarian at some point, but i think i love steak too much lol

I'm stunned to see people criticize the way of making foie gras when, in America, beef is full of hormones and corn is genetically modified and in Korea people eat dogs and cats.

As a reminder, Foie Gras was invented by the Egyptians, as they noticed that duck and geese would actually overfeed themselves before migration. The process of overfeeding is natural for migratory birds.
So yes, maybe these birds are killed after the overfeeding process, but which animal isn't ?
Chicken ? Beef ? Salmon ? None of them...

didnt know that they overfeed themselves!

yea, the korean culture of eating dogs is beyond me. i hate that! i've met people who have tried it, and im SO appalled when they say it tasted good. YUCK!

Yay for Wolfie!!! I personally applaud the upward move!!! I take the motto "it is what it is".

Geese raised for foie gras do not run to farmers for food. They are confined in cages where they can not move at all and are force fed through tubes to fatten their liver.

http://www.goveg.com/feat/foie/

The french (and other foie gras lovers among us) will be up in arms!
I love to indule in a little foie gras, but not very often, maybe once a year? It's just too ingrained into the french culture to give it up.

LOL maggie man it is a huge industry there. I too think they won't be happy with him!

I read somewhere that if you pop your lobster into the freezer for a short while, it will go into a coma like state and won't feel any pain when being murdered. Don't know if there is any truth to this

My grandma used to stab her lobsters in the back of the head before she cooked them. She said it killed them instantly. Why couldn't they just do that? Does it make any of the good parts soggy?

By "good" I mean "anything that everyone else eats, since I hate seafood". I've pretty much cut out everything but chicken (and "beef" at Taco Bell), although I do like beef and pork and will eat it if you put it in front of me.

Twinkle-I have heard the same, but i dont know if it is true or not either. It does make sense.

Most chefs slice them open starting at the head, because supposedly (I say supposedly because I'm not that well versed on lobster science) it immediately severs the primitive nerve system, but I believe some people dispute this because the lobsters sort of twitch around still.

I've also heard of putting them into a freezer induced coma.

So happy to see this! Bravo Wolfgang, Bravo!

colormesticky, I've heard of people doing that with their lobsters too. In the past when I have cooked lobster, I simply boiled them while live. Inhumane, I know, but it is how I was taught to cook them.

I've also always heard that you have to cook the lobster while it's still alive or it doesn't taste good. Any insight as to why? I think it could be due to lactic acid accumulation after death. Any other ideas?

i think it's great that WP is doing this.... in general, i'm with yum, i try when i can to pick the free range/fair trade when i can.... i really think it's also better for you, but when it's not an option, i still need to eat....

they tell to have some Foie Gras, i say NO NO NO.
haha, get it?

lol have you ever tasted it soup? im thinking i might just taste it ONCE.